Known electrical connectors transfer electrical currents, voltages, signals, and data with a large bandwidth of currents, voltages, frequencies, and data rates. In low, medium, or high voltage or current ranges, and in particular in the automotive industry, such connectors must guarantee the transfer of electrical power, signals, and data in hot, contaminated, humid, or chemically aggressive environments. Due to the large range of applications, a large number of specifically configured connectors are known.
Known electrical connectors throughout the range of applications have housings assembled with an electrical member, such as an electrical cable or a circuit board of an electrical component, for mating with a mating electrical connector. An electrical connector must reliably secure an electrical contact within the housing for connecting to the electrical member. Furthermore, the electrical connector must reliably transmit electrical signals, and consequently, known electrical connectors have fasteners for releasably fastening to the mating electrical connector.
Constant efforts are being made to improve electrical contacts and electrical connectors to be more cost-effective. For example, in certain applications, such as a high-voltage connector for sensor applications, increased safety requirements are to be met for hybrid vehicles and electric vehicles. These safety requirements relate to air and creepage distances, as well as a finger guard required for a signal contact.
In the prior art, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a two-rowed plug connector for a typical low-voltage application has two laterally molded-on secondary contact securing devices 80 on its integral contact housing 8. A plurality of electrical contacts are latched inside the contact housing 8. The secondary contact securing device 80 has a lateral slider and is used to further secure the contacts in the housing 8. If two adjacent contacts bear against the secondary contact securing devices 80, a creepage distance is an air distance 82 between the contacts. The creepage distance 82 can only be increased by increasing a spacing of the contacts in the longitudinal direction, which has a negative impact on an installation space of the connector in the longitudinal direction.
A minimum width of the contact housing 8 with the secondary contact securing devices 80 is approximately 7 mm. As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, a flange width which results therefrom, without an external ribbing 92 for reinforcement, is approximately 9 mm on a plug interface of a contact housing receptacle 9. This flange width has a negative impact on a finger guard of the contact housing receptacle 9. A minimum spacing between a test finger 6 and a free end of an electrical contact is approximately 1.4 mm in this dimensional example as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. Due to the continuous lateral sliders of the contact housing 8, the lateral walls of the contact housing receptacle 9 can only be stabilized from the inside against a deflection in the event of a finger being inserted to a limited extent by short inner reinforcing ribs 90. Additional measures such as the external ribbing 92 are necessary on the outside of the contact housing receptacle 9 to stabilize against deflection, which has a further negative impact on a width and height of the installation space of the connector.